Читать книгу The Twelve Gifts from the Garden - Charlene Costanzo - Страница 13

The Pom-Pom Palm

Find ecstasy in life;

the mere sense of living is joy enough.

—Emily Dickinson

In the world of plants, just as with people, we get first impressions of personalities and character. At least I do. Some trees in this garden give me an impression of lightness and playfulness. To me they are reminders to have fun and find the funny things in life as much as possible. They stir my joy too.

The pom-pom palm is one of them. That’s just my name for it. Its most common name is ponytail palm. Officially named Beaucarnea recurvata, this tree is also called the elephant foot tree. Very large and thick at the bottom, with grayish bark resembling wrinkled skin, the trunk does look like an elephant’s foot. But I think the name pom-pom palm is a good fit. The leafy parts of the top, the long skinny frond leaves, stick out in bunches, looking messy like a teenager’s bedhead. If there was just one bunch, I’d stick with the name ponytail palm, and if there were two I might call it a pigtail tree. But with several, this particular one reminds me of a cheerleader’s pom-poms waving in the wind. This tree’s got spirit.

It’s one of the unofficial greeters to anyone coming to tour the garden or to check in at the registration office at Sanibel Moorings, the resort on the island whose grounds are a certified botanical garden. It stands here giving a warm welcome to every passerby too. Or maybe to excited children arriving on vacation for the first time, it chants an upbeat cheer, “Hey, hey, are you ready to play?!”

I imagine it as able to read the emotions of humans, too, so that it knows just how much cheer to extend; it’s a sensitive tree. Sometimes it just looks cute and caring enough to make a person smile. I know it always lifts me up a little higher than where I was before I saw it. This tree is a model to me, a reminder to give everyone I meet a bit of cheer, in whatever form they may need.

Am I anthropomorphizing? Maybe. Using my imagination? Yes, of course. But there’s more to this. We don’t yet know what it’s like to be a tree. Of course we likely never will, not fully. One can never really know what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. Or roots in this case. But scientists are learning that trees have intelligence. They help each other heal. They communicate with other trees through soil and air by releasing certain chemicals, and they even warn each other of danger. Really.

German forester and author Peter Wohlleben says that trees are sentient beings. They feed their young, they cooperate, they communicate, and they have character too. There is just so much more to every living thing that we don’t yet know. It’s exciting to think of what else scientists will learn about the inner lives of plants.

In a smaller form than this one, the pom-pom palm, a.k.a. ponytail palm, a.k.a. elephant foot tree, is commonly a house plant. It seems like a fun tree to remind us to be of good cheer. I think it might just be the next addition to my household.